Covenant - Being a Part of God's Work
Notes
Transcript
Intro:
Pixar movie Up intro scene.
Hits you right in the “feels.”
Where did we learn to love, commit like that?
Our first three weeks in Core 52 have been spent in . We see how God initiates, well, everything. He created it all and then gave it all to us to own and create for ourselves.
Last week we saw the destruction wrought by temptation and rebellious choices.
For the next 8 chapters of Genesis, humanity replays Adam and Eve’s sin to the point that God has to start the world over with Noah
5 The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. 6 So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. 7 And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.” 8 But Noah found favor with the Lord.
gen 6.
Even this extreme act doesn’t wipe out the predisposition to sin, to buy into the devil’s lie that we can be like God.
Tower of Babel in .
But in chapter 12, God chooses a man to create a family and eventually a nation to work his will. That man was Abram.
It is with Abram that God makes a covenant.
6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
God Initiates Covenants
God Initiates Covenants
The Bible tells us that God is a covenant making God.
First element of the agreement with Abram:
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”
What are we talking about when we say “covenant?”
Covenant - What Is It?
Covenant - What Is It?
More than a contract or a simple agreement.
We enter into contracts all the time.
The Bible describes “royal covenants.”
Two parties - greater and lesser.
Greater (God in this case) sets the terms of the covenant - rewards and punishments.
Lesser can enter or decline the covenant.
There’s a demonstration of what happens when the covenant is broken.
9 The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
9 The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half.
The point to this bloody demonstration is to say “may it be to me if I break this covenant.”
But look what happens when it’s time to make the agreement:
12 As the sun was going down, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a terrifying darkness came down over him. 13 Then the Lord said to Abram, “You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years.
gen 15.12
17 After the sun went down and darkness fell, Abram saw a smoking firepot and a flaming torch pass between the halves of the carcasses.
A third time God reinforces this covenant with Abraham.
gen 15.17-
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am El-Shaddai—‘God Almighty.’ Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. 2 I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.” 3 At this, Abram fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him, 4 “This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! 5 What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations. 6 I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them! 7 “I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
gen 17.
God makes subsequent covenants with Abraham’s offspring:
Moses - (Ten Commandments) covenant of land & kingdom
David - King of Israel and into future.
Finally the new covenant of eternal life in Jesus Christ.
26 As they were eating, Jesus took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take this and eat it, for this is my body.” 27 And he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. He gave it to them and said, “Each of you drink from it, 28 for this is my blood, which confirms the covenant between God and his people. It is poured out as a sacrifice to forgive the sins of many.
But this begins with Abraham who is, literally, the father of faith.
Abraham - The Father of Faith
Abraham - The Father of Faith
Abraham - The Father of Faith
Abraham - The Father of Faith
Faith - What Do We Mean?
Faith - What Do We Mean?
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.
Abram believes that God will do what he says and acts on that faith.
3 For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”
11 Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous—even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because of their faith. 12 And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised.
But “faith” in our cultural context can mean simply “belief” or , “assent.” Clearly more is intended.
Change “believed” to “was faithful.”
Illus: there’s a difference between saying “I have faith in my wife/husband,” and saying, “I am faithful to my wife/husband.”
It’s commitment.
Jesus Fulfills Abraham’s Covenant
Jesus Fulfills Abraham’s Covenant
gen 15.
9 He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a female goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
9 The Lord told him, “Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” 10 So Abram presented all these to him and killed them. Then he cut each animal down the middle and laid the halves side by side; he did not, however, cut the birds in half.
1 Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.” 2 “Take your son, your only son—yes, Isaac, whom you love so much—and go to the land of Moriah. Go and sacrifice him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you.”
Remember that God symbolically walked through the ratification of the covenant. Abram did not.
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.”
17 It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, 18 even though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.” 19 Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did receive his son back from the dead.
God affirmed that any covenant breaking would be borne by Him, not Abram or his offspring.
Jesus Pays the Price for Breaking the Covenant
Jesus Pays the Price for Breaking the Covenant
heb 11.
45 At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. 46 At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” 47 Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. 48 One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. 49 But the rest said, “Wait! Let’s see whether Elijah comes to save him.” 50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit.
matt 27.
Bottom Line
Bottom Line
Noah
Noah
20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
1 pet 3.
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
David
David
12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
Bottom Line
Bottom Line
Jesus demonstrated true faithfulness to God and to us.
His blood, his sacrifice is God walking through the animals.
He is God in the flesh fulfilling the covenant to Abraham, paying the price for our unfaithfulness.
If we want to be a part of God’s plan, we must have faith. In fact, faithfulness.
If we measured our